An Excellant Free Antivirus Program

[ockster14]

they is no software 100% effective

well yes that is alot of trojan but i just had my computer scan and i had 1050 virus and its not that you download everything youhave to remember you can just download music or videos and get some and pictures so it depend on what you are really doing if you are opening things your friend send you, now i never heard of anyone that has never gotten a virus on there computer, NEVER, so if anyone say they never please tell me the secret cause firewall, norton and mcafee is not always the answer, especially norton, so i need help as well, yes i put alot of music on my computer, so yes that might be my problem but to be honest i always feel that all these company work together, if you are a computer wiz a hacker then you know nothing is 100% good, you just have to fine what helps you with your computer cause people do different things all the time that is why, they warn you to watch out for what you open and what you down load

[hankhill]

AntVir

i downloaded Avira AntVir and it bogged my system down 50%. i have uninstalled program from add/remove program but there is still (avgnt) in the msconfig start up screen. i use windows xp and the program worked well but i'll stick with mcafee and ad-aware for now. i tried the search option and eliminated everything with AntVir . i am not that tech savvy so maybe i'm missing something simple. any help appreciated..........

[Troy]

I would like to weigh in on this topic. I use AVG on a regular basis. I also have a linkysis router, is the firewall protection built in by just having the router? In other words if I have a router do I have a built in firewall?

An antivirus program is much different than a firewall, and addresses separate issues. Firewalls prevent (or attempt to) unauthorized access to a network. Antivirus programs attempt to prevent (usually) malicious applications from being installed on a computer. By a strict definition, a router is not a firewall. It does, however, provide some of the same security benefits.

Traditionally, a router uses something called NAT (Network Address Translation) to give the computers on the "protected" LAN side of the network a different, unaddressable set of IP addresses. On the WAN side of the router are the unprotected, ISP assigned, routable set of IP addresses (in most homes, only one).

Some routers do have rudimentary firewalls built in, so you may be provided with some extra protection.

Nonetheless, a router such as a dlink or linksys does provide you with an excellent layer of protection between the internet and the "fake" network on the LAN side. It is, in my opinion, much preferrable over any computer based firewall. With software based firewalls that are installed on your computer connected directly to the internet, the potential hacker is accessing your computer directly to try to hack it. With a hardware router between you and the internet, the potential hacker has to breach the router first, then after a complicated series of steps, your computer. This is quite unlikely, when properly configured.

So in my opinion, never connect your computer directly to the internet, always use a router, at a minimum.

This is a bit of a tangent from the original post, so if we are going to discuss routers, please start a new topic.

Let me know if you have any questions...

[tekman22003]

I would like to weigh in on this topic. I use AVG on a regular basis. I also have a linkysis router, is the firewall protection built in by just having the router? In other words if I have a router do I have a built in firewall?

[fred1949]

AVG Antivirus...free & very good.

If you want a good Anti-Virus try AVG. Just type AVG in search. I've been using it for years. It is free and has daily updates.

Fred

[Chris112]

I def. agree with turning off the restore points.. Thats probably why you had 560 trojans/viruses.. It kept finding them in the restore points. If you turn them off before running a scan it deletes all the old points and will usually make the scan much faster.

[alyssa]

Avast is by far one of my favorites used along with adaware.com but I also just invested in spy sweeper and I am glad I did. It has found a lot of stuff that these other programs haven't found.

[handyandy]

montecore, I noticed that you told Lazypup to turn off the "RESTORE POINTS otherwise all of those nasties will be still there". Is this true? I had my pc for about 5 years and had a few issues so I opted to re format, I noticed that my pc would not respond to the disk I got from Dell. I run Winxp. I insert the disk, pushed F12, arrowed down to option 3, push enter, then enter again (It says to hit any key to boot from disk) It runs and asks me if I want to install, or repair at this time I need to select enter to continue, but it froze. I restarted several times and finly it took. Can this be due to not turning off the restore point? Also which is better, NTSF or NTSF Quick? I can not get back the Avast I was using, but I found AVG, any good?

This sounds more like hardware failure to me

oh and for a Award winning - easy to use FW -- try Zonealarm.
the makers of it are known for helping the Dept Of Def.

I like Zone Alarm, but for safety I think you are much better off with a simple hardware firewall. Dlink, Linksys, netgear, etc. You can get one for around $40 that will put a physical layer of protection between your computer and the internet (esp with cable modems), and this is much more effective than letting the outside world hit your computer and then relying on zonealarm to protect it. Don't let them hit it in the first place!

[tuffun]

Also using Adaware personal - free spybot remover -- works well
another AV scanner that will work is at www.Trendmicro.com
follow the links to HouseCall --- it's a java based or kernel
online virus scan not bad for a free scan and is updated daily
by trendmicro -- makers of PCcillin and other progs.

oh and for a Award winning - easy to use FW -- try Zonealarm.
the makers of it are known for helping the Dept Of Def.

[ABP]

montecore, I noticed that you told Lazypup to turn off the "RESTORE POINTS otherwise all of those nasties will be still there". Is this true? I had my pc for about 5 years and had a few issues so I opted to re format, I noticed that my pc would not respond to the disk I got from Dell. I run Winxp. I insert the disk, pushed F12, arrowed down to option 3, push enter, then enter again (It says to hit any key to boot from disk) It runs and asks me if I want to install, or repair at this time I need to select enter to continue, but it froze. I restarted several times and finly it took. Can this be due to not turning off the restore point? Also which is better, NTSF or NTSF Quick? I can not get back the Avast I was using, but I found AVG, any good?

[wak]

I too used to buy Norton, Mcafee and PC Cillion and have been converted to the free anti virus programs.

Of Microsoft Beta Anti Virus, Grisoft AVG, Avast and Anti Vir.

Anti Vir and Avast are close in being really good. I keep them both loaded but only use one at a time.

As far as free adware / mail ware programs.

I like Ad-Aware by Lavasoft, Spybot Search and Destroy and this new one I found is really good called Ewido.

The other three free utilities that are a must own are: Killbox, Hijack and Jv16 Power tool. These babys will identify and remove anything. Specially Killbox. Killbox will remove anything that Norton or any of them can't remove. Simply find the bug, in propertys look for it's exact location and copy it in Killbox.

I have one computer I use specifically for surfing the net and getting viruses on it just for the challenge of removal. If somebody trolled all over the net for a good solid year and did not run any anti virus software I could see picking up 500 to 1000 bugs.

[montecore]

Hey LazyPup,

Sounds like your system was pretty bogged down. Maybe I can help you out like you helped me in the appliance forum. If that firg was a computer I would have it fixed in a heart beat. I work in computer sales and service. I have a few concerns of what has happened to you. Both Norton and McAfee are very intrusive and resource damanding applications. I have seen Norton and McAfee mess up many peoples systems over the yrs. Keep in mind there is NOT a single anti-virus on the market that will detect 100%, same goes for trojans, spyware and adware. That is why we use 5 different scanners if we are cleaning off a system. Usually this may work about 90-95% of the time but your best option is to backup any of your data then wipe & reload the operating system. If you are using XP then turn of the RESTORE POINTS otherwise all of those nasties will be still there. I would not use those restore points they can cause more harm than good.

Why, should you reload the OS? Because with that many infections there is bound to be more issues in the near future. Many AV scanners do not actually delete the virus completely but merely inactivate it. All the junk that those nasties left behind is still on your system. Then you can rest assusured you have a CLEAN system

There are 3 FREE AV's:

1) Avast
2) AVG
3) Anti-vir

Avast is by far the best out of this FREE group...it is all personal preference. I would also switch from using internet explorer to Mozilla Firefox. 95% of the junk will be blocked by just switching browsers. If you have broadband make sure you are BEHIND a rotuer this is a HARDWARE FIREWALL and basically makes your system invisible on the net. There is also a really nice free program called SPYWAREBLASTER. There are a few other FREE apps to have ad-aware, spy bot search and destory, if running XP MS antispyware beta and A squared.

Sorry I forgot to mention that some of these nasties will masquerade as windows system files and you you start deleting these then you will definitely want to wipe and reload.

Remember security is all about layers of protection.

Hope this helps!

[LazyPup]

Mrcaptainbob..this time the kudos go to Troy. My machine was so locked up that it would take 10 to 15 minutes to boot up from power on and would only log onto the net after 8 or 10 tries.

I actually tried to reformat my hard drive buy one of the adware was attached to the Dos files and wouldnt let my reboot disc load.

Out of desparation I used my room mates computer to email Troy and he turned me on to the Anti-vir program.

After nearly two hours of hacking away i was finally able to get my machine online long enough to download the program and now my machine is working like new again.

[HayZee518]

I used the av software and only found one.

[mrcaptainbob]

I loaded that in, LazyPup and it found 11 on mine. Thanks. It actually found 18, but 9 were in archive. THis was after I reformatted, reloaded all software, installed all up-to-date McAfee. It was at that time that I archived so as to not have to go through the reformatt again. Well, the short time I was on with McAfee is when they must've been planted. So, I'll clean the machine with this sytem and do a thorough check with it and McAfee and the do another archive to supplant that infected one. Pitiful. But....thanks for the info. As usuall, you always come through.